Blog Archives

Michael C. Ford thought he was sophisticated in how he terrorized young women on the internet. His methods however, resulted in federal charges of interstate threats, fraud in connection with computers, wire fraud, and cyberstalking.

Some of us are familiar with the threats, being on the receiving end. They are threats that unless you do what the perpetrator wants, that they will post your personal information on the internet. Many times, that is combined with claiming to have some type of “public document” and misrepresenting it so they can demean and mock.

Michael C. Ford

Michael C. Ford however, did not use “public documents” as a threat against his victims. He hacked into protected accounts on the internet and obtained sexual photos of his victims. The 17 page warrant is an interesting read.

Ford used various Google email addresses to make contact with a woman, reported to be 18-years old, letting her know that he had obtained some sexually compromising photos of her, and that he also knew her real name and address. He demanded that she take videos of other girls undressing and/or nude, and send them to him or he would release the photos to her family and friends, and post them on the internet along with her personal information.

Like this:

The other week, I was watching the Steve Harvey show and Paula Todd was a guest on his program. Paula Todd is a Canadian journalist, investigative author, broadcaster, and lawyer. She is a professor of broadcast journalism and digital media at Seneca College, and is a frequent speaker on cyberabuse, Internet culture, writing, reporting, literacy and freedom of the press. In 2014, she published the book, Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies and Predators Online.

An introduction of her book starts with;

“Cyberbullying, tormenting and revenge porn. Workplace digital skullduggery, online defamation and reputation annihilation. Cyberstalking, Anon hate and adults ridiculing other’s children. Digital sexual extortion, blackmail and predators on the prowl. Which kids, youth and adults are behind this negative online behaviour and what can be done to stop the abuse?”

For those who have Word Press blogs, you know that we can see referrals to our blog from other sites and emails. I don’t always check that section on the Admin side, but when I saw a significant increase in the number of views one day, I did check.

Steve Harvey’s website linked to an article on Blackbutterfly7. Words cannot express how honored I was. Of all the sites on the internet that reported on the particular subject matter, Blackbutterfly7 was chosen. I didn’t publicly share that information. Why? Because for years, cyberextortionists stalk the internet looking for opportunity to disparage this blog and defame me. I did not want them trying to verbally vandalize Steve Harvey’s website and taking up the time of his staff to moderate their defamatory vileness. Read the rest of this entry →